Monthly Archive for November, 2008

: November, 2008

Restaurant critic Ed Murrieta, who left the News Tribune earlier this year, is back at the table with a bang with “South Sound Eats.” He describes it as “an online food community where we explore and share the best food and beverages in the South Sound,” and he means it to be interactive in more than the usual sense of the word. You are invited, for instance, to dine with him literally as well as figuratively. …

Every Thanksgiving we get requests for Emmett Watson’s famous (or is it notorious?) recipe for Thompson Turkey. Finally, in 2005, we dug up an old column where Watson described the complicated preparation step by step. For everyone out there wondering either how to make it or what the heck a Thompson Turkey is, we’ll reprint the 2005 column again here, in Watson’s honor. We hope we never have to explain to any true Seattleite what an Emmett Watson is: …

That’s what I wondered when writing today’s “how to carve a turkey” feature, which included chef Gabriel Claycamp’s advice to take the turkey from the oven when it reaches 155 degrees — ten degrees lower than official federal safety guidelines (and 25 degrees lower than the guidelines used to be). …

Our obituary for Joe Canavan of World Class Chili, who died earlier this month at age 78, will be in Wednesday’s P-I. You can read it here online now. Services have been set in his memory — they’ll be at 2 p.m. Dec. 12 at St. James Cathedral, and Joe’s wife, Dorothy, said that they’re open to everyone who wants to come pay their respects. (For those of you wondering whether World Class will stay open, Dorothy said she’s still trying to figure that out.) …

I’ve been hoping Brandon Pettit’s restaurant would wind up somewhere near my house. He’s just signed a lease in Ballard, though (My Ballard shows you the spot), which is at least an easy drive from the P-I. …

When I was thanking the folks at Taste SAM for sharing their carrot soup recipe, general manager Danielle Custer told me that they take pride in sharing their recipes, and actually have a bunch of their most-requested ones posted on their web site. Here they are — even arranged by season! Nice-looking autumn ones include the delicata squash galette, a Harvest Sweet Potato Chowder, and a Drunken Chicken Noodle Bowl. Dessert recipes include the amazing Spicy Pecan Bars that former pastry chef Elise Fineberg shared with us last year for our article on Christmas cookies. (If you try them out — as I did a couple times over the holidays last year — you can get harissa powder at World Spice.) …

I’ve been a fan of Kim O’Donnel’s “A Mighty Appetite” for some time, but I only learned after meeting her last week that she has a holiday book out featuring “Kitchen Tricks for the Feasting Season.” Picture it as a more comprehensive, codified version of all the holiday cooking advice she’s given her Washington Post readers over the years, complete with recipes to take you through New Year’s. …

It’s true that no one was surprised when Whole Foods topped the list of “America’s Healthiest Grocery Stores” in a recent judging by Health magazine. The surprises are some of the others on the winner’s list — Safeway, for instance, came in at #2. Here’s what the judging panel, which included a pediatrics prof at Stanford and a couple nutritionists, had to say about it: …

Photo courtesy of bakingbites.com Don’t tell me you’re sick of hearing about Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight after yesterday’s every-angle-aganza of stories. You know you want (and the teenager in your life wants) to bake Twilight-themed treats for a movie release party. Yes? Then you can thank Nicole at Baking Bites for filling the void, complete with recipes for eats, drinks, and edibly gory photos for both adults and kids: …